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The last time Cadillac sold a true coupe, Saddam Hussein was still in charge of Iraq. The last time the storied brand offered a genuinely sporty one? Try never. No, the deceased XLR doesn’t count — that was a drop-top roadster. And yet, the recent lack of experience building two-doors didn’t stop the Wreath-and-Crest brand from making the 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe an absolute blast to drive. Granted, they already had a solid palate to work with in the form of the CTS sedan — our 2008 Motor Trend Car of the Year.

There’s only one engine available in the Coupe: the 304-horsepower, 273-pound-foot direct-injected 3.6-liter V-6. It has a great torque curve and is never short on power, provided you’re in the right gear. Passing ability is impressive. Downshift, drop the hammer, and you’ll fly past that slow-moving minivan at supra-legal speeds well before you risk ending up in oncoming traffic. It has a good note to it too, though it doesn’t sound quite as sweet as one of BMW‘s inline-sixes. Few engines do. The torque-converter six-speed automatic is no dual-clutch gearbox, but it shifts plenty fast and smooth nevertheless. In sport and manual modes, it’ll hold a gear all the way until redline, but in sport mode it may decide to drop a gear on you at an unexpected time. The steering-wheel-mounted shift buttons do the job well, but large column-mounted paddles would be better.

Handling can be summed up as “you point, it goes.” The well-sorted suspension adeptly handles just about anything a road can throw at it, never getting unsettled even in bumpy off-camber corners. It doesn’t hurt that our tester was equipped with the $2090 Summer Tire Performance Package, which adds the stiff FE3 suspension (the “sport” FE2 suspension is standard), 19-inch wheels, and ultra-grippy Continental ContiSportContact 3 tires, 245/45R19s up front and 275/40R19s at rear that stick to the pavement like epoxy. The stiff suspension means the ride is hardly couchlike. If you’re looking for plush, you’ll be sorely disappointed. However, it’s not uncomfortable by any means, even on extended road trips.

The summer tire package also adds an upgraded cooling system and bigger brakes with 13.6-inch rotors up front and 13.3-inch rotors at rear (up from 12.4-inch front/rear). These reel the big two-ton coupe (it weighs just a few pounds more than the sedan) promptly and didn’t show any fade even after 50 miles of spirited driving around the twisty backroads of Napa Valley. The variable-assist steering is responsive and has a good weight to it once it tightens up at higher speeds. Last but not least, the package is mandatory if you want to row your own gears. Caddy doesn’t offer the manual transmission without it.

In its design, the CTS Coupe is more than just the sedan with two doors chopped off. For starters, the coupe’s roof is 2.0 inches lower, rear track is 2.0 inches wider, overall length is 3.1 inches shorter, and windshield angle is 2 degrees steeper. There’s a completely different rear end, which features a center-positioned exhaust and two-piece laser-brazed decklid, the latter a manufacturing trick required to accomplish Cadillac‘s goal of taking the CTS Coupe from clay model to production with minimal changes. Specifically, it was used to create the crisp edge that runs the width of the decklid. Its no surprise that the production model looks almost identical to the concept seen in 2008 at the Detroit auto show save for minimal changes like DOT-legal headlamps.

Another gold star on the CTS Coupe’s report card is the optional 10-speaker stereo, which may be the best car audio system Bose has ever made. Though highs aren’t as crisp as they could be due to the lack of dedicated tweeters, it provides punchy bass without maxing out the equalizer, and the built-in 5.1 surround logic works surprisingly well. Its part of the Performance Collection option group ($4440), which also throws in adapting lighting, LED light pipes in the headlamps and taillights, a DVD player, Bluetooth, and heated front seats. For an additional $2440, Caddy will add a rearview camera, ambient interior lighting, heated/cooled front seats, heated power-adjustable steering wheel, and Sapele wood trim. Opting for the Premium Collection gives you all of the above plus Cadillac’s pop-up nav system and a large non-retractable sunroof for $8845 above the base price.

Sure, there are downsides to the coupe, but these are of the usual “reduced headroom and cramped rear seats” variety, and the former is exacerbated when the car is fitted with the sunroof. Nobody has ever walked into a dealer’s showroom looking to buy a two-door unaware of these shortcomings, so these are minor gripes, if they can even be called that. The only legitimate complaint that can be levied in the CTS Coupe’s direction is that the stock seats don’t offer enough lateral support. Unfortunately, these are the only seats that will be offered in the Coupe, as there are no plans — yet — to offer the CTS-V’s awesome Recaros as an option. (If you just gotta have ’em, the V coupe starts at $62,990.) Memo to Cadillac: Rethink this one, your V-6 customers will thank you.

Is this the sportiest Caddy ever? No, the CTS-V still has that one on lockdown. But it is, without a doubt, the sportiest one you can get for under 50 grand. Until the CTS-V Coupe arrives later in the summer, it’s the best-looking Caddy you can buy, period, and a far cry from the not-so-golden age of the last Eldorado.

2011 Cadillac CTS News and Reviews

Nissan and Infiniti are recalling their sporty coupes because an issue with the power windows could result in pinched fingers or arms, and Cadillac is recalling the CTS because of an issue with the brakes.2011-2012 Infiniti G37 Coupe, Nissan 370ZThe Problem: A programming error in the power window switch controller causes the auto-reverse feature to not work, and could result…

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More good news for General Motors: the company reported an 18-percent year-over-year sales increase in August 2011, ending the month at 218,479 total sales. While the Chevrolet Cruze once again led the charge with huge sales success, all of GM’s brands saw year-over-year volume increases.Sales of cars were up 18 percent year-over-year, sales of crossovers were up 17 percent, and…